Burden of Proof
by Factory Knot
Summary: My take on a possible way the show might go post the season four finale. Spoilers for all seasons.
1. Chapter 1

_Everything belongs to Jeff Eastin and others, I am just going crazy waiting for the new season and trying to keep myself entertained. This will certainly become AU one the fall eventually comes..._

**White Collar –Burden of Proof**

Chapter 1

Neal looks at the door where his father has fled, for a moment he can't think of what he should do. Part of him wants to run after his father, arrest him or beg him to stay, punch him or ask him to make everything better. Part of him wants to curl up in a ball and pretend none of this is happening. Instead he calls Diana, tells her James has just left his apartment. Let them try and apprehend him, if he's not willing to confess it's a waste of time to pursue him. Instead Neal has another idea. He has a box of evidence sat on his table implicating several high profile figures in the justice system of bribery and corruption and worse.

If he's going to be playing poker he needs to know what cards he is holding, he needs to sit and read through the papers, but not here. He starts packing the papers back into the box, just as he is finishing Mozzie arrives.

"I see the box arrived safely. This calls for a celebration" Mozzie gloats, he goes to grab a wine bottle and glasses. He stops when he sees Neal's face.

"What?" Mozzie asks with dread.

"James killed Senator Pratt." Neal tells Mozzie quickly, wanting to get it over with.

"What?! Why?" Mozzie asked

"It was self-defence, but that's not the worst part." Neal told Mozzie, who stands there holding the bottle and empty glass.

"He used Peter's gun and now Peter's been arrested for Pratt's murder. It doesn't look good." Neal tells Mozzie bleakly.

Mozzie actually puts his glass and the unopened bottle down, a sign of how shocked he is.

"Where is James?" Mozzie asks looking around as if half expecting him to emerge from the bathroom.

"He left. He made it clear, we're on our own." Neal tells Mozzie as he grabs a bag from the wardrobe and shoves a few personal items into it.

"Oh Neal, I'm sorry…" Mozzie starts to tell him but Neal cuts him off as he closes the bag and grabs the box.

"Not now Mozzie, Calloway isn't going to let me keep running around now that Peter's in custody." Neal tells him.

"Wait, you're running? Neal, is that a good idea?" Mozzie asked doubtfully. He knows his question probably sounds pretty ironic considering how many times he has advised Neal to do this exact thing.

"I won't be able to help Peter from in Prison." Neal tells him heading for the door.

"Wait what about your anklet?" Mozzie asks, concerned that his friend is not thinking clearly. Neal has always had a tendency to leap before he looks. Mozzie had grown to rely on the Suit to keep Neal's more reckless impulses under control, without him it was up to Mozzie to keep Neal out of prison or worse.

"Peter or Calloway still has it, they didn't get a chance to put it back on me" Neal told him without looking back. Mozzie is forced to either follow or watch him leave and he is scared what his friend will do if Mozzie is not there to talk him out of it.

June is downstairs, having a cup of tea. She stands up as Neal and Mozzie come hurrying down the stairs.

"Neal darling, is everything alright? James went rushing out of here like the building was on fire." She tells them, looking at Neal with concern.

To her surprise Neal comes over and gives her a hug.

"June, I have to leave. The FBI will be here soon, asking questions, looking for me. I'm sorry for bringing trouble to your house." He tells her in a choked voice.

"Darling, what's going on? Can I help?" She asks worried now. Neal shakes his head choked.

"Goodbye." He tells her and makes for the front door. June looks at Mozzie totally thrown.

"Don't worry, I'll look after him." Mozzie assures her before following Neal out.

Mozzie catches up to Neal who is standing taking a look at the house.

"You'll be back." Mozzie tells him.

"Maybe." Neal says smiling at his friend sadly, taking a quick look back at the place that had been home for the past few years.

Mozzie gestures to his cab.

"The FBI knows about the cab." Neal reminds Mozzie, who smiles knowingly and goes over to his cab number and rips off the top layer revealing a brand new number underneath. Then he opens the boot and presses a couple of switches so that the number plate and cab number on top of the cab change too. Even under the circumstances Neal can't help but smile in appreciation.

"Very James Bond." He tells Mozzie who smiles in appreciation of Neal's appreciation.

"So where are we going?" Mozzie asks as he pulls out.

"Head to Brooklyn." Neal orders. Mozzie drives, glancing back at his friend frequently. He never trusted James and he knows Neal was suspicious of him, but even so, he was Neal's father, knowing he was a murderer, being betrayed by him had to be messing with his friends head. Neal stares out the window not saying anything for a few minutes. Mozzie hears him make a noise.

"What?" Mozzie asks.

"Nothing. It's just…we just crossed my radius." Neal tells him quietly.

"We could keep going, leave all this behind. The Suit will be fine. Probably." Mozzie tells him, though he knows Neal will never abandon Peter.

"I can't let Peter take the fall for James." Neal says quietly. Mozzie grips the steering wheel tightly and doesn't look back. He knows Neal won't be talked out of it, he just hopes Neal doesn't end up taking the fall instead.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	2. Chapter 2

**Burden of Proof - Chapter 2**

Jones distracted the guard and kept an eye out while Diana snuck in to see Peter in the interrogation room.

"Diana" Peter said in relief when he saw her. It had been a tough couple of hours, being questioned by Calloway, then waiting on his own, not knowing what was happening, having to just do as he was told, everything out of his control. He imagined it was like a Doctor felt when he suddenly became a patient. He didn't care for it much.

"I don't have long, Calloway is on her way back up to question you again." Diana told him. Peter nodded gratefully.

"Is there any news about James?" Peter asked hopefully, his face dropping in disappointment when Diana shakes her head regretfully.

"It looks like he's gone on the run. We've got people out looking" Diana said, trying to be reassuring.

"Have you spoken to Neal?" Peter asked, seeing some emotion on Diana's face he doesn't recognise behind the worry, reluctance maybe.

"I spoke to him, maybe an hour ago, told him what was going on, that we needed James to come in. I haven't heard from him since then and he isn't answering his phone." She admitted grudgingly.

Peter nodded and tried to listen to Diana's assurances that they would find James and get Peter out of this while he wondered whether Neal was protecting his father and what that meant for Peter. His stomach growled, he hadn't eaten all day and he suddenly remembered El.

"Has anyone told El?" He asked Diana.

"You didn't call her?" She asked. He shook his head.

"Not yet, I'm was hoping we'd get this straightened out before I'd have to." He sighed. I'll ask Calloway if I can call her when she comes back.

"I think you'd better ask for a lawyer as well boss." Diana told him bluntly.

Peter nodded reluctantly. He didn't like the idea, but he knew it was sensible, if they didn't find James soon he might be facing a longer stay in prison than he thought.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It didn't take Neal and Mozzie to set up in Mozzie's back up safe house in Brooklyn.

"So this is March." Neal commented as they entered the safe house in Brooklyn. Ever since he was forced to give away the code names of his safe houses Monday through Sunday to the FBI, he had arranged for a back-up set of 12 safe houses with code names based on months of the year. It was a bit extravagant but when you had a billion dollar fortune in Nazi loot money wasn't really a problem.

It was in a pretty rough area which meant that you didn't get much foot traffic and people didn't pay attention to comings and goings at strange time. Best of all because it was an abandoned Garage Mozzie was able to park his taxi inside, as well as the other cars he had apparently been collecting since they got back from Cape Verde. There was a vintage Mustangs, a 1967 Pontiac GTO and a 1963 Impala which Neal thought was probably a homage to Mozzie's Detroit childhood.

He could feel Mozzie looking at him expectantly waiting for Neal's opinion and even under the circumstances he couldn't ignore it.

"Nice cars." He admitted smiling slightly and running an appreciative hand over the Pontiac, causing Mozzie to make a noise of complaint about finger prints and quickly bring out a chamois cloth to wipe of any imagined prints.

Mozzie took him to the room at the back which was set up with a small bed and kitchenette and a huge bookcase, indicating Mozzie's sense of priorities.

Neal brought out the box of evidence and set it on the table.

"So what's the plan?" Mozzie asked.

"We need to clear Peter." Neal told him simply.

"Without finding James?" Mozzie asked cautiously.

"We'll let the FBI find James, but it took them years to find me and I'm not leaving Peter in trouble that long. We need to find another way." Neal told Mozzie firmly, making it clear he wasn't interested in talking about James.

He had been envious when Neal first found out that James was his father. He had always felt it was he and Neal had in common, that lack of knowing who your parents were. The sense that you could never truly tell who you were because you didn't know where you came from, but now he thought maybe he truly was better off not knowing, than finding out your father was a lying, cheating murderer like Neal. It had to screw up your head something like that but he knew better than to bring it up. It was a shame the Suit wasn't here. Mozzie hated to admit it but he was better in this sort of situation.

"You have a plan?" Mozzie asked cautiously.

"We're going to make sure they decide there is no way they can prosecute Peter." He told Mozzie grimly.

"How? This isn't playschool, this is the FBI" Mozzie asked worried. He was always happy to set himself against the man, but he didn't fancy swapping himself and Neal for the Suit.

"We're going to make sure they don't have any evidence to prosecute him with." Neal told Mozzie firmly.


	3. Chapter 3

**White Collar –Burden of Proof**

Chapter 3

Thanks to Peter's temporary demotion to the FBI Evidence Warehouse both Neal and Mozzie were familiar with how it worked and where the weaknesses in its security lay. Their first job was to get hold of Peter's gun from there. When breaking into a Federal evidence building to steal evidence was the easiest part of your plan it wasn't a good sign, Mozzie thought as they snuck toward 'the Cave' as the evidence warehouse was known within the FBI. Mozzie had snuck in before posing as an FBI agent in order to help Peter but they couldn't afford to be caught either in person or on camera this time. They were currently sat down the road in one of Mozzie's cars preparing for the first part of the plan.

"Are you sure you know where all the camera blind spots are?" Mozzie asked anxiously as he handed Neal a communication earpiece so they could stay in touch.

"I met Peter here for lunch every day for two week's Mozz." Neal assured him.

Mozzie opened his laptop and hacked into the security system to allow Neal to break in without setting off the alarms. He realised Neal was still there.

"What are you waiting for? Go! The security will only be offline for 20 minutes." Mozzie told him anxiously. Neal nodded, seeming totally relaxed and darted off.

The building should have been called the box, rather than the Cave Neal thought as he quickly hopped over the 12 foot fence carefully avoiding the barbwire at the top and down the other side. From the outside it was just a large square building made out of what looked like steel corrugated walls. There was a door on two sides, but heavily guarded, which left two other obvious access points. The roof, or the windows circling the top of the building. Neal had decided a window would be quickest and easiest way in so he chose one of the door-less sides, making sure the security patrol was not around first he approached the wall and looked up at the window. There were no handholds, nothing to grip onto. Despite himself Neal smiled at the challenge. This would be fun. He pulled out his 'sticky gloves' and 'socks' and slipped them on. Neal had mocked Mozzie for wasting money on them when he ordered them, but he had to admit they were going to pay for themselves now. They were made up of thousands of tiny sticky filaments that were only sticky one way, meaning Neal was able to 'unstick' one limb at a time as he made his way up the wall. It was tricky, he wished he had more change to practice with them as he glanced down at the drop.

"This is your 15 minute warning. How's it going?" Mozzie asked in his ear suddenly, causing Neal to jump and one of his hands and his feet to unstuck and the weight on one hand caused him to slide down the wall a good five feet before he managed to stop himself. Luckily he didn't get totally unstuck.

"I need radio silence for a minute Mozz" he told him patiently taking a shaky breath and continuing his climb up.

He got to the window and quickly popped the frame using more sticky pads to keep the window suspended. He would simply put it back when he left, leaving no evidence of his visit. That was the plan anyway. He pulled himself halfway in the window and paused to see if popping the frame had attracted any unwanted attention. It all seemed quiet.

"I'm in." his whispered to Mozzie.

"12 minutes left" Mozzie told him. Neal quickly hopped inside and made his way down the wall, simply un-sticking himself towards the bottom and dropping the last 10 feet or so to speed things up.

They already had a good idea of where the gun would be thanks to Mozzie's time logging mobile phones onto the system for Peter. Mozzie had finished the job with time to spare and taken the opportunity to have a little look around the filing system. He had been disappointed to find no evidence of alien cover ups but decided they must keep them at another facility.

Neal ducked out of sight as a guard came by. He was just part of the regular patrol Neal thought; they hadn't noticed his unexpected arrival. He found a terminal in the area they wanted and quickly found the number of Peter's case and tracked down the gun. He pulled out the evidence bag he had brought containing a similar gun in it and swapped them over, but not before carefully copying the logging numbers on the front of the real bag onto his copy. The idea was to make it look like the case fell apart thanks to evidence screw ups by the FBI. They didn't want it to look like there was any cover up that might trigger lengthy investigations.

As Neal knew from his own past, as well as from working with Peter at the FBI, no evidence meant no case to answer. It might not solve everything but hopefully it would at least keep Peter out of prison. The thought of Peter behind bars because of Neal, however indirectly made Neal's stomach clench in anxiety.

He took a deep breath as Mozzie gave him the 8 minutes warning. He was going to move faster on the way out. He darted back through the warehouse and quickly scaled the cabinets closest to the wall. At the top he peered across the gap, it was probably about fifteen foot across. He tried not think about the fact it was over twenty feet down if he missed. He heard footsteps and ducked out of sight as a guard came by again. Neal was conscious of the seconds ticking by as the guard slowly made his way down the aisle and out of sight. Despite the urge to move as soon as the guard turned the corner, he waited another 30 seconds. This next part wasn't going to be silent. "6 Minutes Neal, are you out yet?" Mozzie asked in his ear, he was starting to sound worried.

Neal put on the gloves and stepping back as far as he could on to the far edge of the cabinet to give him a short run up, he threw himself across the gap to the wall praying the gloves were strong enough to support him and he didn't end up doing a comedy slide down the wall. He hit the wall with a muffled thump which wasn't as loud as Neal feared, then there was a second when he slid down a foot or so but then he stuck. He made his way up the wall, much faster than on the way in, he had the knack for this now. He hopped over the window sill, pushed the frame back in and made his way back to the fence.

"2 Minutes." Mozzie was definitely sounding panicked now.

"I'm at the fence." Neal reassured him before taking another deep breath and quickly scaling his way to the top. He caught himself on the barbed wire at the top, ripping his trouser leg. He quickly wiped the blood off the wire as best he could and made his way down the other side, darting back to join Mozzie in the waiting car.

"All okay?" Mozzie asked as Neal got into the passenger seat. Neal pulled out the evidence bag with Peter's gun and put it and the gloves in his satchel and tossed it onto the back seat.

"The gloves were great." Neal told him appreciatively.

"Is that blood?" Mozzie asked worried as he spotted the tear in Neal's trousers.

"It's just a scratch." Neal told him dismissively.

"Neal, you can't leave evidence behind! If they find your DNA they can place you here. No to mention clone you." Mozzie told him anxiously, his voice rising in pitch and volume. Neal gave him what Mozzie thought of as his 'really?' look.

"Clones?" He asked and then decided to ignore that part of Mozzie's outburst, as he knew from experience that following up would be following Mozzie down the rabbit hole. It's fine it was the barbed wire on top the fence, and they aren't going to have any reason to check the fences, once it rains, the evidence will be gone. Now let's go." He told him reassuringly. "We aren't done yet." He says grimly.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was late by the time the external investigating team was satisfied with questioning Peter. Diana had managed to get Peter a bail hearing for first thing the following morning but Calloway was insisting on keeping him in custody over night. Diana tried to argue that he was not a flight risk, but Calloway had said "This is a murder investigation, we are not going to let our main suspect just go home for the evening."

Peter would have done the same thing in the circumstances, but he didn't like to think of El sitting at home worrying about him all night. He just hoped he made bail in the morning. Bail wasn't granted lightly for murder charges, federal agent or not. Maybe he could persuade them to release him on an anklet, which would amuse Neal no end. Assuming he hadn't already fled the country he thought with a wince. Neither Jones or Diana had managed to speak to Neal since he had reported that James ran. Jones and Diana suspected that Neal was protecting his father. It would be understandable, but Peter didn't want to believe Neal would just hang him out to dry like that. The interrogation door opened, he expected it to be his ride to the prison, but it was just the one of the Agents in charge of his case.

"Agent Burke, your lawyer is here." She told him. Peter was confused, he hadn't called his lawyer yet, he was hoping that they would find James, who would admit shooting Pratt and he wouldn't need one. The agent stepped to one side to allow the lawyer in, Peter tried valiantly to keep the surprise off his face as Mozzie stepped inside, wearing his lawyerly beige suit with bow tie.

"Thank you Agent, I'd like to speak to my client alone." Mozzie told the Agent, who nodded and closed the door behind her.

Mozzie quickly sat down opposite Peter and pulled out a mobile device and put it on the table.

"How did you get that in here?" Peter asked. They were supposed to search visitors before letting them in. He would have to have words with the agents about the lapse in security once this was all over.

"One minute Suit." Mozzie told him, holding up a finger in what Peter found to be an irritating manner.

"Neal, you there?" Mozzie asked, distracting Peter.

"I'm here Mozzie. Hi Peter, us chatting on the phone like this, it's like old times." Neal said through the speaker phone, his tone wistful.

"Neal. Where are you? Is James with you?" Peter asked relief at hearing Neal's voice mixed with worry over the situation.

"No, I'm sorry Peter. I asked him to turn himself in but he refused and left." Neal told him, the pain in the story behind those words evident in his voice. Peter sighed regretfully. He thought Neal was telling the truth, which meant he would just have to rely on Berrigan and Jones to find him.

"Then why haven't you come in?" Peter asked, wincing as the question coming out more accusing than he intended.

"Because you aren't the only one they are gunning for Suit." Mozzie jumped in defensively. "If you go down for this they aren't exactly going to give Neal a pat on the head and send him on his way." He pointed out angrily.

They both stared at the phone expecting Neal to jump in and were surprised when there was silence at the other end.

"Neal are you still there?" Peter asked exchanging a worried glance with Mozzie.

"Yeah. Look Peter, if we're going to have a chance of beating this thing, it's probably better that we aren't both locked up" Neal said. He sounded tired. Peter could empathise, he was starting to feel like he hadn't slept for weeks.

"What are you up to? I don't want you to do anything illegal." Peter told them. He knew Neal would have some plan in place and that it was likely to be dangerous as well as totally illegal. There was silence at the other end of the phone and Mozzie looked away guiltily.

"You've already done something." Peter realised resigned.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Neal told him with a little of his usual cockiness.

"And the less I know the better right?" Peter asked.

"Deniability is everything." Mozzie told him.

"Look, it was acting off books that got me into this situation. From now on I don't want you to do anything on my case." Peter told them firmly. It was better this way, for their own good and for his. If they were caught messing around it would make things worse for him and result in prison for them. He didn't shoot Pratt and justice would prevail in the end. He had to believe that.

"Peter…" Neal started to say something.

"You should turn yourself in Neal. Diana has a contact over at the Marshalls office, so she managed to hide the fact that you have run, Calloway thinks you are under house arrest back at June's. If you get back there they won't even know you were gone." Peter told them both.

"They'll revoke his deal and put him behind bars. Are you Crazy?" Mozzie asked in disbelief.

"That's a possibility, but only until I get this sorted out. I'll try and keep you out under Jones and Diana's supervision." Peter told them.

"If you think you're the one still making the deals you _are_ crazy." Mozzie told him flatly.

"I'll think about it Peter but I won't let them frame me like they are trying to do to you." Neal told him firmly.

"If they catch you then you'll be looking at life behind bars." Peter warned him.

"Without you to help them, they'll never catch me." Neal told him and Peter was glad to hear the normal teasing tone of his voice. It made Peter take a step back.

"Listen Neal, about your Pratt and your father…" Peter started, he wanted to tell Neal that it wasn't his fault and that James had shot Pratt in self defence, not in cold blood.

"I don't want to talk about this now Peter." Neal said warningly, his tone suddenly cold. There was obviously more to what went on between Neal and James than Peter knew. He wished he could see Neal's face, it was hard enough to read him in person, over the phone it was impossible. Neal was right, this wasn't the time or place for heartfelt talks.

Peter nodded his agreement, then realised Neal couldn't see him.

"At least tell me that your plan isn't dangerous." He asked them.

Neal stayed quiet and Mozzie shifted guiltily again.

"It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive." Mozzie quoted. It was close to what Hughes had said to him just before he had gone after Pratt. Telling him that if the system was broken then acting outside the law to fix it was justified.

Peter sighed in frustration. He would have liked to demand that they stop whatever they were doing or at least told him what it was so he could minimise the risk, but he wasn't in any position to stop them and truth be told he didn't want to, he was scared. He knew better than anyone that the evidence against him was pretty strong, if they couldn't get James to confess, he was looking at life in prison. In the circumstances he was willing to do almost anything.

"Well at least be careful." He told them finally.

"You too Peter and don't worry I won't let you take the fall for this." Neal told him with finality.


	5. Chapter 5

**White Collar –Burden of Proof**

Chapter 5

It was late when Agent Calloway called Agent Clinton Jones to her office, he half expected to be walking out without a job. Everyone knew he was a key member of Peter's team. Both he and Diana had been extensively questioned about what they knew of Peter's dealings with Senator Pratt and his shooting. At Peter's request, Clinton had answered honestly, putting Peter's instructions to him and Diana to delay the search of the Empire State building in order to allow Neal time to find the box. He wasn't sure what he would have done if Peter had asked him to lie, but then Peter never would. That was how Clinton knew that he had been right to follow Peter's orders and to help in his investigation of Senator Pratt.

"Agent Jones, please shut the door and take a seat." Calloway greeted him as he knocked at her doorway.

"I've read your report about the Senator's shooting and I am satisfied that neither you or Agent Berrigan were involved in the shooting." She told him in that childish voice she had. Clinton tried not to scowl at her

"Peter, Agent Burke, didn't shoot Senator Pratt either." He told her, making sure he kept his voice calm. She raised a manicured hand to indicate he should be quiet. She was like FBI Barbie, he thought. How did she expect to be taken seriously dressing like that?

"That's not why I called you in here." She told him.

"It's not?" He said dumbly, taken aback.

"Your work in this department has been exceptional. It's clear you have a bright future here and I want to give you the chance to prove yourself. I am appointing you as acting head of the White Collar division until the _situation_ with Agent Burke has been resolved." She told him.

Clinton could hardly, understand what she was saying. Peter was facing 20 years to life in prison and he was getting a promotion. Part of him wanted to refuse, to stand up tell her to stick it and walk out. The other, more practical half, told him this accepting would actually put him in more of a position to help Peter. It was better than them putting some stranger in charge, whose motives they wouldn't know. Clinton's practical side had always been stronger so his internal struggle only lasted a few seconds. He was aware of Agent Calloway looking at him expectantly.

"Thank you." He told her finally, trying not to make it sound like a question and she beamed at him.

"Excellent. Let me be the first to congratulate you. If you do a good job hopefully we can make the position permanent." She told him standing to offer him her hand.

Seeing as how having the position become permanent meant Peter never coming back Clinton could hardly agree. He shook hands with her, it was like shaking hands with a cold limp fish. He left her office feeling like he needed to wash his hands, maybe take a shower, he felt dirty all over. He made his way over to Diana whom he could see was resisting the urge to demand what happened immediately.

"How did it go?" She asked anxiously. He didn't know how to tell her and she took his expression the wrong way.

"That bad huh? Don't worry we'll clear Peter and sort it out, even if the whole FBI is against us." She told him passionately.

"That's not going to be a problem, she made me head of White Collar." He told her. She blinked twice as she tried to absorb the news. He knew how she felt, he still felt blindsided himself.

"It's good news. I'll have access to resources and we won't have some new boss breathing down our necks." He told her. She nodded, her expression blank.

"Congratulations. I guess." She told him.

"It's just until Peter is back." He told her. She nodded again more firmly this time.

Calloway had already packed up Peter's personal possessions into boxes so it didn't take long for Clinton to move his stuff in. He felt like a traitor as he sat at Peter's desk and logged onto the computer. Diana came up and knocked on the door frame.

"Jones, I just heard that Peter's lawyer just turned up." She told him, saying 'Jones' in a slightly defiant tone, as if he would demand she call him 'Boss' like she did Peter. He wondered if this was going to cause problems between them.

"So what?" Clinton asked. If he were in Peter's position he would ask for a lawyer too.

"I just saw him, it's the little guy." Diana told him using her nickname for Neal's friend 'Mozzie' which was also an alias. Just referring to the little guy caused Jones' stress levels to rise.

"Do you want me to stop him before he leaves?" She asked. If anyone knew where Neal was and what he was up to it was Mozzie but they didn't want to let on to Calloway that Mozzie was important.

Clinton shook his head.

"We'd better not draw attention to him. Let's go speak to Peter while his lawyer is there." Clinton told her.

"You can tell him about your promotion." Diana said teasingly.

Maybe she wasn't as upset about his promotion as he thought. Then again, as he thought about actually telling Peter that he was taking his job – maybe Diana was even more sadistic than he thought.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neal was sat at the table pouring over what looked like building blueprints when Mozzie arrived back to the safe house. One of Neal's jackets was hanging over the back of a chair. Mozzie picked up the jacket and moved it to the back of the door.

"You could at least keep the place tidy." Mozzie told him grumpily.

"Sorry Mozzie." Neal told him in a contrite manner, though Mozzie suspected Neal was just humouring him. He picked up a half full glass of what looked like water Neal had left just lying on the table.

"I'm still drinking that Mozzie." Neal complained mildly. Mozzie put it back down, a little embarrassed. He wasn't used to someone else being in his space. It was taking a little getting used to, but considering Neal was like a brother to him he was trying.

Neal looked up at Mozzie with bright eyes.

"I have some good news." He told Mozzie with satisfaction.

"So do I. OPR is taking over the Suits investigation." Mozzie told him quickly, wanting to get his news in first.

"_How_ is that good news?" Neal asked puzzled.

"Because we know someone high up in OPR is corrupt from Fowler." Mozzie started to explain.

As always Neal caught on to the implications immediately.

"If we can find a name we can probably blackmail or bribe them into sweeping Peter's case under the carpet." Neal finished.

"What's your news?" Mozzie asked curiously.

"Peter's lab tests have been outsourced to a private lab to avoid any accusations of cover ups." Neal told Mozzie.

"How is _that_ good news? Private Labs often have higher tech security than the government ones." Mozzie asked.

"Because they are using ICS and Sara just happens to have used them before and knows heir security layout and I was able to pick up a copy of the building blueprints." Neal told him.

"You spoke to Sara?" Mozzie asked distracted by this information.

"Focus Mozzie. I've got a plan on how to get the physical evidence from the lab, but we'll need to wipe their computer records too." Neal told him.

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Mozzie asked frustrated.

"With a little help from a friend." Neal smiled at Mozzie. It was the smile he gave him when he was going to do something Mozzie was not going to approve of.

"Which friend? They would have to be a hacking genius" Mozzie asked and then the answer popped into his head.

"You don't mean her?" He asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, we're going to need your ex-girlfriend's help." Neal told Mozzie.


End file.
